Good for Heaven, Bad for Earth

Feast of Saints Michael, Gabriel, Raphael, Archangels

Revelation 12:7-12

We meet Michael in the Book of Revelation, Gabriel in the Book of Daniel and later as the announcer in the Annunciation story, and Raphael as the healer of blindness in the Book of Tobit.

The reading from Revelation comes as the seventh (seven's are everywhere) angel, from the seventh seal blows his trumpet.  By now the reader is on image overload…a video game creator could not imagine this much action.  Finally John hears God's reign on earth being announced.  Bring out the champagne...John can finally get some rest.  But…it was a teaser.  War breaks out in heaven.  Michael leads the charge to banish that enormous red dragon with seven heads with crowns and horns that wants to gobble up the birthing woman.  Michael prevails!

Therefore, rejoice, you heavens, and you who dwell in them.  

It's not the end of the vision.  What was good for heaven is bad for earth.  This dragon doesn't give up easily.  The story is comforting to those whose lives are literally spent (as in totally) in fidelity to a baptismal discipleship that preaches the Gospel.

I wonder what turmoil my discipleship is being called to enter.  I wonder if I will ever really get this Book of Revelation.  Will my robe ever even get dirty enough to need bleaching?

Take That

26th Sunday in Ordinary Time
Mark 9:38-43,45,47-49

Teacher, 
we saw someone driving out demons in your name, 
and we tried to prevent him 
because he does not follow us.

This line strikes me as plain middle school tattling. And the disciples must have thought Jesus would be so very proud. Exclusivity is seductive. The tighter the reins the easier it is for me to know for sure who is in and who is out. Neat and tidy...and small and self-referential.

Driving out demons is good work. But manipulating one of God's little ones for one's own benefit will have serious consequences. And even worse if it is done under the guise of churchiness or religiosity.

So beware. No tattling. No misleading.
Unless you want to be face to face with worms that don't die in a place where fire is never quenched .
Now, take that!

A Changed Tune

Saturday of Week 25 in Ordinary Time

Saints Cosmas and Damian 

Canticle

Jeremiah 31:10,11-12ab,13

So the Prophet Jeremiah has spent his whole life trying to be heard.  He predicts (with a little help from God) the destruction of Jerusalem and tries AT LENGTH to get the people's attention.  Times were good.  And when times are good we humans tend to think we can do it all alone…Thanks God.  You've been mighty helpful.  But I think we can take it from here.  Bad move.

The canticle today is from Chapter 31.  And Jeremiah is offering hope to the remnant in Jerusalem.  I love that he doesn't do too much "I told you so."  The Lord gathers and guards and blesses.  The Lord will console and gladden them after their sorrows.

The hope-filled chapters stand out against all the warnings and destruction.
When I am in the midst of those sorrows…
Or  when someone I love is there…
It is the Lord at work gathering, and guarding, and blessing that I long to experience
or to incarnate.

…but not with words
…words don't stand out

THE Question

Friday of Week 25 in Ordinary Time

Luke  9:18-22

These few verses offer the perennial discipleship question, Who do you say that I am?

The easy answers that roll off the tongue are always dissatisfying.  One day I think I have a good answer…one I believe with every fiber of my being.  And then, its gone and I feel unmoored.  Compared to the Marcan version, Peter gets off easy!  None of that "Get behind me Satan" rebuking.

But oddly, it is Peter and his not-quite-right understanding that consoles me when my own answers are thin.  In his address to Congress yesterday, Francis brought four personalities together to paint a picture of the visionary life.  The vision is so big and broad and beautiful.  There is room for everyone.  I pray to find my place in the caravan that is leading somewhere real and full of ultimate meaning.  And I am convinced that it will be my own wrestling with that question, over and over again, that will prod me along the way.

Abe, and Martin, and Dorothy and Thomas…Pray for me!

Buildings of People

Tuesday of Week 25 in Ordinary TIme

Ezra 6:7-8,12,14-20

Psalm 122

Luke 8:19-21

It can be fun to peek at the verses the lectionary leaves out:
  
Ezra 6:11 "Furthermore I decree that if anyone alters this edict, a beam shall be pulled out of the house of the perpetrator, who then shall be impaled on it.  The house shall be made a dunghill."

Biblical Jenga…mean and spiteful Jenga!  Why hide this stuff?  It is really good!  With a nuanced and incarnational understanding of Sacred Scripture, we can see how the unfolding story of a people, made in the image and likeness of the Creator, is struggling to know and understand just who this God is.  God isn't changing from a brute to a nice guy.  Rather, we are  slowly unmaking God in our own image as we begin to allow this wholly other God to inhabit our hearts and minds.  (...the text is living and so it is still working on us)  And so texts like these are great mirrors.  Darius IS the good guy…comparatively speaking.  He is facilitating the building of the Temple and for Israel, that is a restoration of a people.  Soon Israel will be cleansed and rededicated to the covenant.  The missing verse actually serves the "building" motif well.  

Anyone who has been through a parish merger knows how constitutive buildings are to a people's identity.  Jesus gets radical here.  He loves buildings too.  As a boy the Temple is where he began "being about my father's business."  But it is the occupants who matter most.  Those who hear the word of God and do it…they are family, church, people.  They matter most.  

I pray in thanksgiving for the people who have set in me a firm foundation
I pray in thanksgiving for the blood, sweat, and tears that built the beautiful as icons of the God who draws, and houses, and protects
I pray in thanksgiving for the people of God who put life into the beautiful 

Let us go rejoicing to the house of the Lord (Psalm 122)

MERCY + JOY

Monday of Week 25 in Ordinary Time

Feast of St. Matthew, Apostle, Evangelist

Matthew 9:9-13

"Go and learn the meaning of the words I desire mercy, not sacrifice."

Only in Matthew's gospel is the tax collector named.  Jesus calls Matthew and then defends his meal sharing with tax collectors and sinners.  Only in Matthew's gospel is this accompanied with reference to Hosea 6:6, I desire mercy, not sacrifice.  

Learning the meaning of the words is not as easy as it sounds.  I think mercy is easily cheapened.  It can get confused with a shallow "I'm sorry, you're forgiven" transaction.  But the call to mercy is an entire ethos.  It calls for my investment in the pain and struggle of the whole world.  Not to add burden to me but to lessen the WHOLE burden.  To the extent that I cultivate joy, I can invest more and more.  Without the joy…it is just sacrifice…just beans swapped from one side to another.  

Mercy and Joy.

Mercy and Joy.
Mercy and Joy.

Making the Heart a Home

Saturday of Week 24 in Ordinary Time

Luke 8:4-15

Honest, noble and good!

That's what it takes to be rich soil...to have a heart where the Word can find a home. 

I am Honest when I am authentic, when my body, mind, and spirit are a whole in me. 
I am Noble when I believe in the incarnation. When I believe that the image of God is stamped in my person. 
I am Good when I give away the love I have received, re-scattering the gift of the Word. 

May the Word find such a home...such a heart...in me. 

Capital Investors

Friday of Week 24 in Ordinary Time

Luke 8:1-8

(link to today's readings)

Jesus' enterprise (Jesus + The Twelve + many others + Mary, Joanna, and Susana) is going from one town and village to another and to another, preaching and proclaiming the good news.  It is these three named women who are the capital investors…risking the investment out of their resources.  Their return was the Gospel itself.

Just saying…Luke names them.  But not anyone else.

I am claiming this Saints Mary, Joanna and Susanna Day!
Founding investors in the Gospel of Jesus Christ!
Founding stewards of time, talent and treasure!

Thank you ladies!

Simon-ize Me!

Thursday of Week 24 in Ordinary Time

Saint Robert Bellarmine, Bishop, Doctor

Luke 7:36-50

This is one of those passages so so rich in detail…hence all the art-reflection this scene has produced.  There is THIS woman (and we know what THIS means) hanging on to Jesus' feet, soaking them with her tears and drying them with her hair.  Cultural differences aside, that IS a scene.  And then Simon,  the pharisee who invites Jesus to dine.  One does wonder why since under his breath  he mocks this "so-called prophet."

Regularly I find myself in conversations that irk me and I can never think of that perfect response in the moment.  An hour later I might come upon the most perfect response.  Well, Jesus just gets right to it.  The hypocritical and judgy Simon is pulled into the story about the creditor and his two debtors…and he won't come out unscathed.  He doesn't even realize that he is being faced with his own blindness.    After Jesus commends Simon's right answer, then comes my favorite line:  Then he turned to the woman and said to Simon, "Do you see THIS woman?"  Jesus' eyes are linked to the woman, but he is speaking to Simon.  Of course Simon can't see the woman.  But now he must look at her.  Jesus won't look at Simon again until he sees THIS woman.  One commentator called this "Irish Ricochet."  

Who is it that I label "THIS…this kind, this type, this…you-know what I mean."
I pray for a little more of THIS woman and a little less of Simon in my life.

Yes…But...

Wednesday of Week 24

Saints Cornelius, Pope, and Cyprian, Bishop, Martyrs

Luke 7:31-35

Luke's story visits the relationship between John and Jesus and pretty well surmises that they make a good tag team.  They are different but that isn't a problem for those who are genuinely seeking to understand.  

That doesn't describe the crowds in today's passage.  They seem to want only to play "over-against."  They prefer "lose-lose."  John starved himself and hung out in the desert…loser.  Jesus eats and drinks plenty…loser too.  

These people!  A bunch of whiners!

When the gospel offers such round characters I figure I'm supposed to find myself in them whether I want to or not.  In CPE I learned about the game "Yes…But."  It describes a conversation one might have with a friend/patient when every offering you make is responded to by "Yes…But."  It is a trap.  There is no winning.  What is missing is an attitude open to being pleased.

May I be open to being pleased, and surprised by joy!
Leave the but behind…stick with the yes!

Facing Our Mirages*

24th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Proper 19

Mark 8:27-35
(click for Gospel Text)
Homily given at St. Stephen's Episcopal Church, New Harmony, Indiana
September 13, 2015
click here for part 1
and here for part 2
and again here for part 3
(long story;)

Peter, in today’s gospel has his VISION focused on a MIRAGE

30 years ago I heard a homily that I still remember

Fr. Lou Guntzelman began with a question 
a small boy asked his mother

Mom…What is the difference 
between a MIRAGE and a MARRIAGE?

This led me to take an informal survey

I’ve asked a number of folks

“What comes to mind when you hear the word MIRAGE?”

And other than the one person 
who envisioned a hotel on the Las Vegas strip

It was pretty well universal

Something that isn’t real…
and then a visual component of an oasis in the desert

For me it was a scene from an old western movie

With the half dead horse carrying a half dead cowboy

The half dead cowboy with parched cracked lips 
is reaching for the pool of water

…reaching for something that isn’t real

Peter, in today’s gospel has his VISION focused on a MIRAGE

Our Gospel reading today is from Chapter 8 of Mark’s Gospel

We are in the middle of the Gospel and it is THE turning point

A kind of hinge…

Everything before this…

Has Jesus reaching out

teaching, healing and casting out demons

A Jesus reaching out to Jews and Gentiles

To Sinners and the Righteous

…and he’s been about this work during the week and on the Sabbath.

The result has been a brewing

A large crowd of fascinated followers has been brewing

And a powerful bunch of provoked leaders has also been brewing

That’s what has come before

And what follows in the latter chapters

is Jesus with his attention focused on his

small band of hand-picked disciples

Jesus knows he needs to prepare them

For what will unfold

Jesus isn’t trying for perfect

He is just hoping for enough understanding

…Enough clarity of vision

So that when suffering and death come

They will have eyes, and ears, and hearts open to perceive the resurrection.

But in today’s passage

It is “mid-semester”

It is time to assess the students

The easy question first…Who do THEY...

Then the hard question…Who do YOU say that I am?

I can sense a long ……… silence

Nobody wants to raise a hand

finally PETER

It has to be Peter…the spokesperson…the rock

YOU.    ARE.    THE.    MESSIAH.

Peter did get the right Word anyway.

Jesus begins phase 2 teaching

He needs to broaden the meaning of Messiah

It needs to include “the suffering Son of Man”

Peter’s meaning, the meaning of the day, is a MIRAGE

A Messiah that comes in and reverses the political order of the day…that rights all the wrongs and injustices…by any number of means…just like that!

No…that’s not Jesus---the Christ---the Son of Man---

No…That’s a MIRAGE

Peter is clenching his MIRAGE…

He’s not ready to let go quite yet

He steps into the teacher role…

            “Jesus, I think you’ve got it all wrong…”

Bad idea!

GET.    BEHIND.        ME.       SATAN.

Tough, tough, tough language…

Thirty years ago the very pastoral Fr. Lou Guntzelman wasn’t that harsh

But the essence of the message was the same

Cindy and Rob, 
your heads are full of a MIRAGE

I know

I know because every young couple I’ve ever counseled 
has had the same problem

And it’s okay

Today is not about perfection

It is about beginning a walk...

an unfolding walk from MIRAGE to MARRIAGE

And it WILL involve some suffering, and death, and resurrection too

(Just to come clean…I didn’t remember anything but the cute story about the boy)

Isn’t  Peter’s problem the same thing?

Isn’t his vision, likewise stuck on a MIRAGE???

And doesn’t this happen in our life of discipleship?

Don’t we get stuck on mirages from time to time?

I think that’s what the latter part of today’s passage is about

All the talk about saving and losing

We clench what we want to save

What we are afraid to lose

And we can’t unfold with our hands all clenched

It’s a mirage

We know that …We know that it doesn’t work that way

But it is so so easy to forget

It began at our baptism

…this walk of discipleship

But its never over

I think that’s why we come here

Why Christian communities bother to gather at all

Because we need nourishment and companionship

The Good News is that discipleship is not about being perfect

And the challenge is that we are always going to wrestle with the tough question

But we are never alone

Especially here

Where the church gathers

And Christ is present

In Word, Sacrament, and Neighbor

Where fresh faith…fresher faith

Is just a half a pew away

And that is just very good news.

Neighbors and Specks and Logs…Oh My!

Friday of Week 23 in Ordinary Time

1 Timothy 1:1-2, 12-14

Psalm 16

Luke 6:39-42

This gospel reading about the speck and the log makes me blush AND laugh.  I have a co-worker who is gifted at pointing out my logs and specks.  To be fair, she doesn't actually point them out, she merely lovingly…and cleverly...holds out a mirror and then I see them myself.  Then I blush.  And then WE laugh.

My reaction to this gospel passage is a loud "OF COURSE!"  I am that person.  I see logs in other people's eyes way too often.  The cure for me is a neighbor who can point out my logs and specks with love and humor.  And in that way I am gently guided to overcome my self-inflicted blindnesses.

A prayer of thanksgiving 
For neighbors, friends, and co-workers
Who are adept at specks and logs!
It can sting  
But like antiseptic on a fresh scrape
…it does lead to healing.

Beautiful, Rich & Challenging

Thursday of the 23^rd Week in Ordinary Time

Colossians 3:12-17

Psalm 150

Luke 6:27-38

link to texts

This is one of those days with such beautiful, rich and challenging lectionary offerings…that any reflection put into words is a mere distraction.  So…not my words…

KINDNESS

HUMILITY

COMPASSION

GENTLENESS

PATIENCE

PEACE

WISDOM

DWELL

GRATITUDE

LOVE

GOOD

MERCY

FORGIVENESS

GIVE

“Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly”  Col 3:16

So be it!